Through a Mirror, Sideways
by LadieLazarus
Summary: Sort of AU, I suppose. Remember the mirror in But For the Grace of God? That's all I'm saying for now. OC.
1. Preface

Title: Through the Mirror, Sideways

Fandom: Stargate SG:1 and probably Atlantis

Rating: PG-13 for violence and language

Genre: Gen

Pairings: Assumed Jack/Sam, Daniel/Sha'uri mentioned

Summary: Sort of AUish, I suppose. At least, there's a fraction of an AU involved. Remember the mirror from "There But for the Grace of God"? That's all I'm saying.

Author's Note: The preface was written by my very good friend Tathrin because I can't write battle scenes and they're kind of her thing. The rest is mine, but I had to give credit where credit is due.

Preface

The Stargate activated.

"Dammit," Walter said, and lifted his fingers from the now useless DHD.

"Good job, Walter," Lorne said, clapping him on the back. The Colonel turned around to wave the others forward through the Gate.

"That wasn't me, sir," Walter said.

Lorne stopped. "What are you talking…about…" Lorne looked at the Gate. He swore, very quietly. He turned to face the rest of their ragtag band of survivors. "All right, people," the Colonel bellowed in his best parade-ground angry O'Neill impersonation. "The Goa'uld are on their way, and they're just activated the Gate from their side! We need to take cover, people! Formation Delta, go!"

They scattered towards the buildings near the Gate. Rya'c and Reynolds took up flanking positions on either side of the Gate. "Janet, get the kids into that one, it looks the most defensible! You and you," Lorne indicated one of his officers from the remnants of Stargate Command, and one of the Jaffa leaders, "take your people and set up guard positions around it."

Fleeing from the Goa'uld in a series of guerilla strikes and narrow escapes was no place for kids, but there wasn't anywhere else to send them. They couldn't go back to Earth, or to Chulak, or any of the other planets the Jaffa rebellions members had once called home. Fraiser had become unofficial den-mother to the group that was made up of an ever-increasing number of orphans. The kids followed the doctor into the building Lorne had indicated and fanned out.

Everyone who was old enough to hold a weapon did so; the youngest grouped themselves near the middle of their underage defensive formation. Janet barked orders that no doctor should have had to give and the children scrambled to obey. Some of the older ones scouted the room, looking for weapons and secondary exits.

"Janet," one of them called, "look at this." She was fourteen, with thick black hair tied out of her glasses with a once-bright scarf. She had a battered staff weapon in her hands and a P90 slung on her back.

The doctor hurried over. "What'd you find, Katherine?"

"I'm not sure. She the indicators here? It looks like it might open a hidden door, do you think?" she asked hopefully.

Janet picked up the small device; it had buttons, but pressing them didn't seem to do anything. "Doesn't look like it's active, I'm afraid," she said, and tossed it back to the table. The maybe-a-remote did nothing, but a corner of the room flashed.

They turned to look at a floor-length mirror. Through it, a disquietingly familiar room was visible. Janet and Katherine stared at each other.

"That looks like the gate room at the SGC," Katheirne whispered.

"It's pretty close, but be careful." the doctor cautioned. "It could be anywhere. Just because it looks like…"

The building shook with a terrifyingly familiar sound. "Deathgliders!" a young Jaffa shouted, raising his zat'n'ktel like a very small warrior. The children clustered, weapons bristling. The next tremor was louder, and the building's walls spiderwebbed into cracks. Dust rained on their heads. "Al'kesh, too," another child murmured.

Then from outside came the sound of staff weapons, bullets, and zats. Then came the screams. Major Vega backed into the room, her P90 spitting. "It's a whole fleet!" she shouted. "Doc, is there any other way out of here?"

"We haven't found one," Janet said, grabbing for her medical bag.

"Then find somewhere to hide," the major snapped, "because we're overrun."

"Does Colonel Lorne—"

"Evan's dead," Vega interrupted. "And unless you can find a miracle, we all are."

Janet's face was lined with strain. "I ran out of miracles awhile ago, major," the doctor said softly. "I'm sorry."

Vega shrugged. "Well, that's how it—"

She never finished the sentence; it vanished in the blast wave that caved in the door. One of the al'kesh had scored an almost direct hit on the building. Everyone was shouting; Janet's voice was lost in the chaos.

Someone climbed over the broken rubble into the battered room.

"What should we do?" Janet asked. "There's no other way out! We have to get the kids out of—"

He raised a staff weapon. "Shel-norak!" the Jaffa ordered.

A boy no older than four raised a zat. "Dal Shakka Mel!" he yelled, and fired. The Jaffa crumpled, but he was followed by others. They didn't waste time calling for surrender, just opened fire. The children screamed, and scattered, and shot back.

Katherine shoved past Janet to bring her own staff weapon to bear, but the doctor caught the girl's arm. "Get down!" Janet screamed, and dragged Katherine to the floor. The children that heard her dropped to the ground as well. The enemy Jaffa didn't listen, and when the stun grenade Janet threw went off they had no defense.

"We have to get out of here," Janet shouted. "Mal'tac, try and blast out the wall. You three, give him a hand." The quartet of youths turned their staff weapons where Janet indicated. The doctor grabbed her bag and went forward to do her first job, but the building rocked again. This time, the ceiling rained in.

So did the Jaffa. Children and enemies alike dropped with screams. Janet looked behind her at the room that might have once been home. She looked back at the Jaffa, and the children fighting them. The Jaffa fell back, all but one who held up a blue sphere that clicked and started to glow. He tossed it, and ran for the crumbling exit.

Katherine leveled her staff weapon at his back, but never got a chance to fire. Janet shoved the girl as hard as she could, and she fell towards the mirror. It didn't break, but flashed, and she hit the ground hard on the other side. Katherine struggled to her feet in a dark closet, facing the mirror. Through it, she could see Janet grab the arm of an eight-year-old girl and pull her towards the mirror and towards Katherine.

Then the bomb went off though there was no noise through the mirror, there was blinding light, and then there was nothing at all.


	2. A Nice Girl Like You

Chapter One

Earth- Colorado Springs, Colorado- Cheyenne Mountain Complex

"I'm bored." Jordan O'Neill sat, turning on a swivel stool, in her mother's lab. Sam raised an eyebrow. She'd been listening to Jordan's whining for the better part of an hour and it was getting old fast.

"Then build something."

Jordan stopped spinning and hopped off of the stool. She picked up a spare piece of something lying on the workbench and started rotating a small piece of metal aimlessly.

"Every time I build something, eight guys come in here and take it from me, at gunpoint occasionally, and then I have to go to a briefing explaining why I no longer have the clearance to talk about the thing that I just built."

Just as Sam opened her mouth to tell Jordan to go and do bug Walter or something, a warning klaxon sounded through the base.

"Security Team Alpha report to Storage B! Security Team Alpha to Storage B!" The pre-recorded voice announced, and Sam dropped her experiment. She pushed away from the table and headed toward the door calling over her shoulder,

"Jordan! Stay here!"

Jordan stayed in the room for exactly 3 minutes, as always, to give her mother enough of a head start to get to the corner.

"Are you new, Mom?" she muttered under her breath before following her mother down the corridor.

A squad of security officers had surrounded the door to the storage room, and from her vantage point, Sam couldn't really make out what was going on. She cast a quick eye around for Jordan, since she knew she was around somewhere and satisfied herself with the knowledge that Jordan was hidden around the corner. Jacob's occasionally angry predictions of long ago had finally come true and Sam had a daughter that never listened to a word she said.

She saw Daniel standing over by one of the officers towards the back and worked her way over to him.

"Hey. What's going on?"

"Hey, Sam. I, well, I have absolutely no idea. They're opening the door now. Jack is in a briefing, but, one of the, uh, the sergeants went to get him." Daniel gestured down the corridor vaguely, but it was obvious that his attention was focused on the opening door. Three of the security officers immediately disappeared inside the darkened space and from inside, and unfamiliar and very young sounding voice cried out.

"Whoa! Okay, okay. Look, can I just talk to someone." An Ancient Egyptian curse interjected itself into the conversation. Actually, it wasn't so much just Egyptian as it was a specifically Abydonian epithet and Daniel felt his ears prick subconsciously. There weren't that many around who even knew those words, let alone used them so instinctively.

The guards emerged back into the corridor with a girl held tightly between them. She looked frantic, upset, and mostly frustrated. "Okay, okay. I get it. O_kay_, I have been through this three times already and I've been shot at once and ran before I could get shot at the second time. I lost my glasses on the last planet, or plane, or whatever and I just really need to talk to someone."

"Who are you?" Colonel Reynolds stepped forward and addressed the girl.

"I can explain that. Honestly I can. It's a bit… Well, it's complicated." The girl was obviously trying to free herself from the grip of the men on either side of her. She was not having much luck, which suited everyone in the corner just fine.

"That's unfortunate." Reynolds raised his arm dropped her with one shot o the zat. "We don't do well with complicated."

"What in the world did you do that for?" Daniel stepped forward. "You have no idea who or what she is!"

"With all due respect, Dr. Jackson, that's exactly _why _I did it." Reynolds holstered his zat gun, stepping forward to observe the prone form of the girl, toeing her tattered backpack out of her reach. "We have no way of knowing what weapons she may have."

"That's ridiculous, Reynolds. The girl can't be older than fourteen." Daniel gestured to her in frustration.

"The Goa'uld have used children before, Daniel." Sam stepped forward and put a hand on his arm.

"Not her." Daniel shook his head.

"How can you be sure?" Sam tipped her head expectantly.

"She was… Sam, she was speaking Abydonian. I haven't heard it spoken in years, but I'd recognize that dialect anywhere."

"Daniel. You have to realize that that could easily be a trap. There's not a Goa'uld in the galaxy that doesn't know your history and none who wouldn't love to take advantage of it. We don't know who she is or where she comes from, and it's best if we ask those questions under guard." Sam knew she'd won when he sighed heavily.

"I know." He ran a hand over his close-cropped hair, and crouched, smoothing the girl's own dark, curly hair out of her face. "I'm going to look at the stuff in her backpack to see if any of it might help us figure out who she is or where she comes from. Come and get me the minute she wakes up."

"You got it, Dr. Jackson" The soldier closest to her nodded. Clemens, Daniel thought his name was.

"Thank you."

The stretched arrived and one of the guards lifted the slight form onto it. There really wasn't much to her, Daniel observed, with a growing sense of pity. She had obviously been without decent nourishment in a long time. Whoever she was, he hoped that the could get her sorted out without having to cause her any more pain that the, in his opinion, unnecessary zat blast already had.

With Reynolds at the head of the stretcher, the guards, radioing ahead to the infirmary to let them know they were coming, moved the girl down the corridor and out of sight. Daniel stood to watch her go.

Sam's voice broke his contemplative silence. "Daniel, as for the backpack, let me do some scans first to make sure its not booby trapped or full of something dangerous. You can come to the lab and watch, and you can have it the minute that we've determined that it's absolutely safe." Sam turned surveying something that Daniel couldn't see from his vantage point. "And you, young lady, you can go to your father's office and wait there until this is all resolved."

"But, Mom…" Jordan emerged from around the corner, just inside Sam's line of vision and Daniel hid a smile behind his hand. "I really want to see who she is."

"No way, young lady. You've already seen entirely too much for a civilian, as usual, and you will wait in your dad's office. Am I making myself clear?"

"Yes, Ma'am." Jordan's tone was frustrated but, as always, Daniel noted, respectful. She turned and shuffled off towards Jack's office, slower than necessary, but still with enough purpose to fulfil her mother's request. Sam waited until she was out of hearing range before continuing.

"That girl drives me crazy." Sam shook her head, smiling. "I don't even know what to do with her some days."

"Just like her father?" Daniel cbuckled, and Sam smacked him lightly on the arm.

"Now, about this backpack." Sam crouched down and observed it, trying to determine if it would be safe to touch without danger.

"You think it'll be okay?" Daniel leaned over .

"I don't know. But, it was on her back and has been dropped already and kicked across the corridor. So, I'm going to assume that I can at least carry it to the lab in one piece." Sam reached out and picked it up, holding her breath for a moment.

Determining that, clearly, the bag was not going to detonate on contact, she carried it off to her lab with Daniel following her. If he couldn't talk to the girl yet, maybe she had something in her backpack that would tell him who she was, and why exactly it was that she spoke Abydonian.


	3. Curiouser and Curiouser

Chapter Two

Jack's day had been hectic enough before he'd found out that there was an unauthorized off-world person on his base. This new information had not improved his disposition. He had wanted to spend the day doing his paperwork and then going home to his family and Shaun of the Dead, which he and Jordan had rented last weekend and not had time to watch before now. Instead, he ended up having to stay late and listen to Jordan whine about how no one would tell her anything as she paced in his office.

He finally received a call telling him that the results on the girl's blood work and tests were in, and used it as an excuse to escape Jordan's whining and head to the infirmary.

Outside the cavernous patient area, Jack met up with one of the doctors, Bradley Saperstein. Dr. Saperstein was a really good physician, and, in general, just happy to be anywhere near the Stargate project. In reality, the only problem any of them had ever had with him was that he wasn't Janet. It wasn't his fault, and though they had had some problems in the beginning, they were all beginning to trust him now.

"Well, General, the blood work revealed that she's definitely not a Goa'uld. She's human, 100 percent. Nothing in her blood or scans indicated any kind of foreign diseases or substances. Just some anti-histamines. Her scans also revealed that this girl is a scrapper. She's been beaten nearly to death several times. Wherever she's from, it's not a pleasant place, sir. However, what's really interesting is that—"

"Hold that thought, Doc. I can get it from her personally. It looks like she's waking up. Why don't you radio Carter and Dr. Jackson and tell them to get down here and meet the patient." Jack strode the rest of the way into the room as the dark eyelashes began to flutter.

Jack watched from the doorway as she opened her eyes and cast her gaze around the infirmary. She was obviously still a little woozy since, in addition to being shot with a zat, she had been pretty heavily sedated. She was bound to the bed with the leather cuffs that they had used the last time Carter had decided to stroll through the Gate Room with a loaded P-90 and an alien passenger.

She didn't look hostile, he thought to himself. However, he had to keep reminding himself that the Snakeheads did not hesitate to use children, and this girl could very well be a trap. He had to approach her as such, and remember not to let his guard down.

"Hello, there." There. That was innocuous enough.

Her head snapped around as she turned to face him. The doc stepped forward as well, although Jack hadn't heard him come in. Saperstein placed a hand on the girl's forearm. She jumped at the contact, but other than that made no move to push away or struggle.

"Hello, my name is Dr. Saperstein. We did some blood work and it looks like you are a very healthy young girl, if not a bit undernourished. I was just going to tell General O'Neill here that—" The doctor was cut off by an abrupt snort of laughter.

"_General _O'Neill?!! General? Ha! Just what I needed: _Jack_!" The girl giggled madly. Jack's commission apparently amused her more than anything had in quite some time. After only a few moments, however, she straightened up suddenly, all too serious. "Actually, that might be the best thing." She looked at him carefully, squinting with clear difficulty. "It really _is_ you. Good. Maybe _you _can help me, Jack."

"Jack?" He cocked an eyebrow with his typical suspicion. He wasn't falling for this quite yet. "Have we met?"

"Yes. But no."

"Ah." Jack dropped onto a stool by the bed. After all, even if the Goa'uld were using her, she couldn't do much while doped up and handcuffed. "That clears it right up."

She sighed and dropped her head back against the pillow. Just then, one of the orderlies entered the infirmary with a pair of glasses. He handed them to her.

"These should work for your vision temporarily. We'll have a more permanent pair made up in time."

"Thank you!" She sounded authetntically grateful and pulled them onto her face instantly. She smiled. "There you are. Wow. You look exactly as I remember you. Anyway, how to explain this… Ummm… I'm from… I'm from another universe. A parallel existence."

"Oh. Well if that's all—" Jack found it alarming just how easy it seemed that he could believe that she might be telling the truth. It was so past time for early retirement. Again.

At that moment, Sam walked in, accompanied by Teal'c and Daniel. Katherine froze. Her eyes became what had to be at least the size of the Stargate. She strained against her bonds and Jack put a hand on her shoulder to try to calm her down. "Hey. Hey. What's going on, kid? Calm down."

"Why are you here?! Jack, get him out of here! Please get _him_ out of here!" She was trying to get as far away as possible from the new trio. Gone was her peaceful and even slightly comfortable demeanour. Her face had become a mask of absolute abject horror. The orderlies were panicking behind Jack, clearly trying to come up with a sedative to knock the girl out again. Jack signalled with his hand. He was not going to knock the girl out when she was clearly more scared of them than they were of her. Well, one of them anyway. He could take down an enemy without losing any sleep, but a defenceless teenage girl? He laid a hand on hers, only to have his hand pinched between her and the bars of the bed. Jack cursed.

"Calm down, kid! Teal'c is one of us! He's a good guy!"

"No!" She twisted even harder. "Not Teal'c! Get _him _out of here! _PLEASE!_" Jack was vaguely astonished to understand that she meant Daniel. Never, in all the years he had known the archaeologist, had he ever expected to encounter someone with such an apparently illogical fear of the man. And this was more than just fear. This girl was clearly scared for her life.

"Teal'c, take Daniel into the hallway." Jack motioned toward the door, and a bewildered Daniel nodded his agreement. The two men exited the room. Teal'c looked just as confused as Jack.

The girl was still shaking. Sam was stroking her forehead, but she was straining against her wrist restraints and looking, for all the worlds, like she desperately wanted to be anywhere but within Daniel's proximity. Finally, her mind seemed to process the fact that Daniel was gone. She looked around the room, and he could see her fighting to slow her breathing. Then, as if her brain was slowly working out some kind of theory, she visually forced herself to be calm and get her question out.

"Jack?" She turned toward the General and he could see, although it made him uncomfortable, that the girl trusted him. He decided to use it to his advantage. After all, who knows what this girl's purpose was. He should try to find out, and if she was going to trust him, then that was all the better.

"Yeah. What is it, kid?" He moved closer to her so that he could hear what she was saying.

"Is he—_Daniel—" _She said the name like it caused her physical pain. "He's not a Goa'uld here?"

It was all Jack could do not to laugh, until he realized that the girl was quite serious. _That _must have been why she was terrified. If her Daniel was a Goa'uld, then no wonder she wanted him as far away from her as possible. Well that was an easy fix.

"No. _No. _Daniel is absolutely not a Goa'uld. We would know. _Teal'c _would know. No."

Sam, realizing that her question was probably more significant than Jack's violent denial allowed it to be, stepped forward and addressed the girl.

"He's a Goa'uld in your…reality?" She asked softly. The girl's eyes were still full of tears. She looked ready to cry again at any moment.

"He killed my mother. He killed her right in front of me." There were no tears yet. Jack recognized the tone of someone who had already cried as much as one person could cry about a subject. He tried not to let his mind wander to the last time he'd been in that situation.

"Your mother?" Jack's tone was considerably calmer now. If this girl was a Goa'uld, they were getting smarter. This story was getting sadder by the minute. However, he remained slightly on edge, realizing that, if they were using her, gaining human pity would naturally be her first objective.

"Sha'uri." She said the name very quietly as if she were afraid of summoning some evil by mentioning her. "He killed Sha'uri."

"Sha'uri is your mother?" Jack was incredulous. This was getting weird. Even for Stargate Command. He really wanted a beer. And a nap.

"Yes. Why? Do you know her? Is she here?" The girl strained against her bonds again, but this time to look around. Sam's heart broke a little.

"Honey, she's not here. She's… she died a few years ago. I'm sorry." She placed a hand on the girl's arm.

The girl looked as if she had expected this response, but nonetheless, looked disappointed. She nodded slowly, digesting the information before she continued, voice strengthened by what Jack and Sam both recognized as the sheer will to speak without breaking. It was the demeanour of a soldier. This girl was definitely trained in combat, whoever she was.

"But Daniel didn't kill her?"

"My goodness, no." Sam shook her head. "Sweetheart, we'd love to untie you and maybe get you something to eat, but first we need to know who you are. Why on Earth would Daniel kill your mother?"

The girl took a deep breath. Sam thought to herself that it looked like she had been dreading this question even as she'd been anticipating it.

"My name is Katherine Jackson. Sha'uri was my mother. Daniel Jackson was my father."


	4. Q & A

Chapter 3

Sam looked through the two-way mirror. The girl, Katherine, was sitting at the table, picking at her fingernails nervously. Sam felt some pity for her. This was going to be difficult for her, and comfort wasn't really Sam's area of expertise. She wished Daniel could do the interview, but given the girl's reaction earlier, that was obviously impossible.

Dr. Saperstein was standing beside Sam. They had just decided to release Katherine from the infirmary hours earlier, after the doctor had confirmed that she was who she said she was, but he wanted to continue to moniter her vitals from a distance. She was still wearing a heart moniter under the loose fitting SGC shirt she'd been given. The combination of zat-plus-sedative usually didn't leave any lingering effects beyond temporary drowsiness, but the girl was young and her body had been under strain for a while, so the doctor was being cautious.

"Just try to take it easy on her, Colonel." Dr. Saperstein shrugged. "She should be fine. I don't see any problem as long as you don't go 'bad cop' on her. Not that that should be necessary. After all, wherever she's from, she's definitely Dr. Jackson's daughter."

"Thanks, doctor." Sam pushed open the door and stepped into the interrogation room. Katherine looked up and then smiled when she saw Sam. Carter tried to return the expression with as much casual affection as Katherine was emanating, but she was a scientist, not an actor. Hopefully the gesture wouldn't come off as too false.

"Hey, Sam." It was un-nerving to be addressed by someone she'd never met as if they'd been friends for life. Still, she tried to remind herself that this girl had been through a trauma, and she should try to make her feel as safe as possible if they were going to learn anything about where she came from. "I'm sorry. I have to keep reminding myself that you're _not _my Sam. Is that weird if I call you that? Should I call you Colonel Carter? You _are _a Colonel, right? I think that's what they called you…"

"No." Sam shook her head. "Sam's fine. And yes, I'm a Colonel. But you don't need to call me that. Just whatever makes you comfortable."

"Oh. Okay." Katherine put her hands in her lap and looked around the room in what Sam thought was a loss for something to do.

"Katherine?" The girl's blue eyes snapped back to Sam's and Sam found herself shaken by her friend's eyes looking at her from a stranger's face.

"Yes?"

"I'm going to have to ask you to put your hands on the table. Standard interr--interview procedure. I'm sorry."

"Oh no. No problem. I understand completely." Katherine put her hands on the table.

"And you understand that this interview is being recorded for reviewing purposes by the senior staff of this facility."

"You mean Jack?" Katherine still clearly found it amusing that Jack was in command of Cheyenne Mountain. Sam had to admit to herself that there were days that she still found it amusing herself.

"Yes, among others."

"Yeah. That's fine."

"Do you need anything before we begin?"

"No. I'm fine." Katherine shook her head. "The guard who brought me in here got me some coffee," she gestured to the foam cup sitting on the table in front of her, "so at best, I may need another cup eventually. Oh! But I did want to know if I could ask you a favor."

"Sure." Sam smiled in what she hoped was a reassuring way.

"Could you see about getting my necklace back for me? I was… I was wearing it when they brought me in. It's like, it's a pendant on a leather string. The pendant has these… Well, they're really just ornamental designs on it. They don't mean anything or anything. The pendant itself isn't important other than that my mother gave it to me. She actually made it for me when I was very little and I've had it forever and I completely understand if you have to run tests on it or whatever, but I would really like it back when you're finished."

"I'll see what I can do." That seemed like a reasonable request for Sam. After the interview, she'd stop by to see if she could move the tests along any. It might help to make Katherine feel more at home and more secure.

"Thanks."

"So, I need you to state your name and age for the record."

"Sure. My name is Katherine Jackson. I'm 14, but I'll be 15 in just a few weeks. My birthday is on June 6, by your calendar, which would make me a Gemini as well." She grinned and Sam found herself smiling back yet again. This girl's smile was infectious. "I like dancing, horses, and the History Channel. Ooh! And The Discovery Channel. They have Shark Week." Suddenly uncertainty appeared on the girl's face. "They do have Shark Week don't they?"

"Yes they do," Sam laughed. "Are you interested in oceanography?"

"Not really. Just sharks." Katherine shrugged and took a sip of coffee.

"Fair enough. Where were you born, Miss Jackson?"

"Katherine. Or Kat, actually. That's what you always called me. You were the only one. And, I was born on Abydos."

"That's interesting. I would have assumed—"

"The SGC? Yeah. No. Abydos. No hospital, no anaesthetic, and no way I'm ever doing that if I have kids. My mom was a trouper."

"So you grew up on Abydos?"

"I visited Earth frequently enough. In fact, one time I stayed long enough to get chicken pox, and had to stay here until we treated them. Not my favourite memory, but one of my longest stays here until I was contracted by the SGC when I was ten."

"Contracted?"

"It was like an after-school job, I guess. I didn't really go to school the way that Earth children do. I learned from my father. And since what my father knows is anthropology and languages, that's what I learned. Plus, growing up on an alien world, I spoke a few other languages that we didn't have. Particularly once the Goa'uld made moving to several Alpha Sites necessary." The girl's countenance darkened at the mention of the Goa'uld. Sam knew she'd have to ask more about that, even as she hated to make the girl any more upset.

"Tell me about the Goa'uld. When did they take your father?"

"They took him about… I guess it was about two years ago. He had been off-world with the team when it happened. They came to tell Mom and I and we had to take off. We ran and hid in a safe house that the SGC gave us. We couldn't go back to Abydos in case he hurt anyone who was hiding us. We also couldn't go anywhere simple like Jack's cabin or anything. We couldn't go anywhere that Dad's previous memories as Daniel would have taken him. And it worked. It worked for three whole months." Katherine took a deep breath, clearly steadying herself before she could continue. Sam could see tears forming behind her eyes.

"Do you want a tissue?" Sam looked around her to try to find the box of tissues that was usually available, but found no such thing. Katherine shook her head in gentle refusal.

"No, thank you. Not yet. I—I'm just going to try to get through this as fast as possible so that I can go lie down. My head is killing me and I'm still completely exhausted, so let me just say this next part and then we can move on."

"Okay."

"So, three months later, I was in the back yard of the safe house reading. I heard a staff weapon fired in the front of the house. I ran to the back window and looked in. That's when I saw him. That monstrosity that had taken over my father."

"And he killed your mother then?"

"Yes. He—he broke her neck. Like it was made of plastic. I heard it." Her voice's lack of emotion registered to Sam as the voice of someone who had told this story enough times to completely detach herself from the incident. It was upsetting to Sam that someone related to Daniel should suffer so greatly.

"Then what happened?" Sam touched the girl's hand, and Katherine looked her in the eyes.

"I ran. I knew that the monster that killed my father and, by then, my mother, would not hesitate to kill me as well. I went to a neighbour's and called Jack. He kept me safe until they were able to—fend off the Goa'uld. He retreated eventually. He didn't think that killing me was worth the inherent risk of being caught and killed by the SGC, so he left."

"And you stayed on Earth?"

"For a while. I stayed with Jack at his house, actually. He said it was the least he could do in the memory of what my father had been once. I was honoured by that. Besides, I think Jack liked having another person in the house. He never admitted it, of course." Katherine shrugged, the ghost of a smile coming across her face for a fraction of a second before disappearing again. "But then, that's when the Goa'uld armies started coming and we headed to Alpha Site."

"You evacuated Earth?"

"We evacuated about thirty times in the next six months. We headed from that Alpha Site to another Alpha Site, and then to several more, including Atlantis for a temporary period. That was the hardest. I kept thinking about how happy Dad would have been that I got to go to Atlantis, and we didn't have time for me to spend moping. We were at war."

"And that's how you found the Quantum Mirror?"

"I guess. Janet found it."

"Janet Frasier?" Sam quirked an eyebrow, and tried not to let emotion work through her. Janet's death last year had been hard for everyone, especially Jordan, but they had finally begun to move on. Sam wondered if they were ever going to completely move on. Especially when people seemed to keep bringing her up.

"Yeah. She found it and sent me through it. The Goa'uld were closing in, we'd lost a lot of people. She was going to send the other children through after me, and…" Katherine did start crying then. The tears were dripping down her cheeks, and Sam searched her pockets before coming up with one, lone tissue. She handed it over and Katherine took it with silent gratitude, sponging the tears off of her face.

"If you need a break—"" Sam let the sentence trail off, giving Katherine the opportunity to make her desires known.

"Actually, could we maybe do this part later? I'm sorry. I really thought I could do this, but it's… it's too soon, Sam, I'm sorry. Could we maybe just postpone? I'm not trying to be uncooperative. I'll talk about anything else you want. I'll even write it up in my mission journal so that you guys can transcribe it and everything, but I don't think I can talk about it just now. Everyone I ever knew is probably dead and—" She gestured vaguely and Sam decided that this portion of the interview could, in fact, wait a while longer.

"You said you have mission journals?"

"I do." Katherine's small smile was full of gratitude for the subject change. "Dad kept them, of course, but after he was—_taken, _I felt awful at the idea of all of his life of research going for nothing, so I kept them up. They're electronic. Saved on a file in my backpack. I'm sure that your reality's…_Daniel_," the word was spoken with clear mental effort, "has already found them and is, undoubtedly, reading them as we speak." Sam opened her mouth to protest and Katherine raised a hand. "That's totally fine. You guys are, of course, welcome to anything that you find there and any assistance I can render with translation or alien anthropology. I have no problem helping an organization that has taken care of my entire family my entire life, even if it is in an alternate reality." Sam had to smile at the deep sincerity. Daniel was present in almost every word. She would have believed that this girl was Daniel's daughter even without the genetic confirmation.

"That's very generous, Katherine—Kat. Thank you."

"Sure. Do you have anything else right now? I really would like to go back to the infirmary and lie down. Even if it's just for a while. My head hurts like crazy."

"That won't be necessary, Katherine." Jack strode into the interrogation room, causing Sam to sit up straighter in her seat with more speed than she probably would have liked. He winced as he heard her back come into contact with the hard metal back on the chair. He rolled his eyes at Katherine before turning to address Sam. "As you were, Carter."

"Thank you, sir." Sam relaxed slightly in her chair, but not by much. She noticed Katherine watching the exchange with mild amusement, but also an apparently ever-present look of impassive observation.

"What do you mean, Jack? If you want to continue the interview that's fine, but I really would like to lie down for just a little. I'll agree to any kind of restraint or supervision—" Jack waved his hand, cutting her off.

"I meant, kiddo, you must be exhausted, and we've asked the important questions, so I think we can finish this up another time. We've got quarters for you on base, so ou can lie down there rather than going back to our infamous chamber o' pointy things. You can move around pretty much the entire base whenever you want, except the Gate Room, as long as you stick with the buddy system we'll be setting up for you."

"That seems more than reasonable to me." Katherine nodded. "I've had more than enough gate travel for one lifetime lately, anyway."

"Now, you don't have any weapons other than the ones you already surrendered, so we're all square, there. Major Brightman here will be your camp counsellor for this evening, and take you to your room. It is…" Jack looked at his watch. "A little after 1900 hours. I figure we can give you until about 0800 when we will wake you from peaceful slumber on our excellent standard issue mattresses to finish this little Q & A. Your room has all the amenities of your best POW camp including a bed, a desk, and yes, possibly even a bathroom. We've also got a couple sets of clothes that should fit a little better than Teal'c's shirt." Jack smiled. "We should be able to return your backpack and everything, minus your weapons, obviously, in the morning, providing that Carter and her army of super-brains don't find anything wrong with them." He winked. "Fortunately with you, I have an in there."

"Oh. Well, that's great. Thanks, Jack." Katherine smiled.

"Don't mention it. Oh. And a Sergeant will be bringing you a hot meal in a little while. If you're anything like your dad you're probably starving."

"I'm practically ravenous, actually. Thank you."

"You betcha. All part of the friendly service here at Chez Cheyenne." Jack gave Katherine a half-wave with two fingers."

"I'll be sure to recommend it to all of my friends." Katherine laughed. "So, I guess I'll see you guys in the morning, then?"

"Yep." Jack nodded. "So now I'm going to kidnap Colonel Carter here, and the doc is going to come in and remove the heart monitor so that you can go to your room."

"Thanks, again." Katherine stretched. Jack nodded in Sam's direction.

"Colonel? Come with me."

"Of course, sir." Sam nodded and, with a small wave in Katherine's direction, she headed out of the room with her commanding officer. She was not at all surprised when their path took them straight to the briefing room where Daniel was pouring himself a cup of coffee and Teal'c sat at the conference table reading a file that Sam assumed was Katherine's brand new dossier.

Sam waved to a frustrated Jordan who was playing on Jack's computer in the office behind the clear glass, and Jordan gave a sarcastic salute in return. She was ready to go home. Sam thought, with a grimace, that they all were.

"All right, campers. Looks like we have one hell of an interesting situation on our hands." Jack plopped himself down in his seat. "The question is, what in the heck are we going to do about it?"


End file.
